PBA/PWBA Press Conference
Gerberich, Falzone:
Professional Bowlers Association Commissioner Mark Gerberich and Professional Women’s Bowling Association President John Falzone met with members of the Bowling Writers Association of America during BWAA’s 66th annual convention March 11, 1999 in Syracuse, N.Y. What follows are edited statements and answers by Gerberich and Falzone during their press conference.
TV status brings changes
MARK GERBERICH: Television is one of the greatest misunderstood products in our business. Everybody says they want television, but nobody knows exactly what that means. For most of the people, it means losing money.
With the change of FOX to FOX Sports Net, which covers the whole country, it changed the whole game for bowling. It used to be real simple: pick up the phone, call FOX, and say, "We want to put our shows on," and they say, OK. Now they say, How much are you going to pay us?
There was a rumor going around that PBA dropped The Marquee Group—absolutely not true. We could not do this without The Marquee Group. They came in, and we have a two-year contract with CBS. They sold $2 million worth of advertising for the first year of PBA shows on CBS, which is an unbelievable task when you look at it.
People are talking about what The Marquee Group is not doing. They could have $500,000 worth of sponsors for the tour, but what we would do is lose $500,000 worth of television time. Our first priority is to be able to pay for the time on CBS. It’s quite a task: This year, the cost for CBS television is $2.35 million. They’re doing quite well; we’re more than half the way there. We expect more deals to be finalized in the next couple of weeks. What we expect to have happen is that we’ll be very close to break-even or making a little bit of money. Last year, we made a little bit on the CBS deal.
On ESPN, we have a spectacular deal. As I said here in front of you last year, it’s the best cable deal in the history of PBA. What we’ve really done is develop a partnership with ESPN. We’ve taken a product that was losing money on the air and really delivered sponsors to their network. Last year we sold about $750,000 worth of advertising for ESPN; this year, we’ll sell more than $1 million. That’s The Marquee Group all by itself. There’s very little work from the PBA when it comes to selling that time.
What is going on, if you must know, is that the Senior Tour wants its own representation. I think that any group always wants to feel like they’re the top dog. The Senior Tour guys feel when Marquee’s making a pitch, they’re pitching the National Tour, so we’re looking for a different partner if there’s someone out there to sell the Senior Tour.
So that’s where the discussion came this week in regards to PBA dropping The Marquee Group, which is absolutely not true. If we drop Marquee, we would be out of business tomorrow. They legitimized us with both networks and our time buyers, so they’re a vital part of us.
I want to talk about two new areas that we’re branching out into. We’re gotten creative: We’re trying to create new revenue streams for the PBA Tour. We’re working with Paul Kreins to create PBA leagues. This is very integrated: We’re working with the American Bowling Congress, with John Davis and the Kegel Company, with Brunswick and the gold pins.
We’re going to try to educate the public about how difficult our game is. If we can put out a PBA Tour condition and bowl on the gold pins and establish a league across the country where people can play on that condition, we feel we can teach those people sitting back and watching our tournaments that even though they’re a 225-average bowler at home and our guys are averaging 215 or 220, they’re not better than Walter Ray [Williams Jr.].
There’s got to be a day and a time in this sport where everybody stands up and really understands what the talent level of these players on both tours is.
What we hope to have happen is to educate the bowlers across the country one person at a time. If you’re averaging 180 in your league, you should be proud to be averaging that because Walter Ray’s averaging 225. We think it’s a great opportunity to get out there and educate the people about our sport.
The other part of the education process is we’re putting together PBA Tour University, which is an educational program, for bowling but also for the lane maintenance part. It’s vital that people learn that it’s not the lane man who screwed them every night. It’s vital for them to know that every lane in the country is not flat and that the conditions as you move from pair to pair, the lanes aren’t exactly the same.
We need to educate those bowlers, and that’s going to be part of the process. I don’t think there’s any easier way to do it. We’ve been working on this; John Davis took the first step about a year and a half ago, and there’s no other way to do this than educating people one person at a time. We look forward to your help in trying to educate these people about this great sport of ours.
JOHN FALZONE: The PBA really rolled the dice to put those shows on CBS. They had to come up with $2 million to make that happen, and that was a gutsy, ballsy move because without that money and without the money Marquee came up with, the PBA probably would have been on CBS this year, but that probably would have been the end of it.
On the women’s side, we, too, are trying to add extra value to our telecasts. We’re on ESPN2 this year. We have done some different things, with our telecasts being one hour. Our graphics are different. We’re opening our telecasts in black and white, using color graphics, 5-4-3 are bowling in our first match, with the winner advancing to bowl number two, and that winner goes on to bowl number one. It’s a very fast-paced telecast.
ESPN2 has put us in that 4 o’clock time slot on Tuesday afternoons. It’s been very successful. ESPN likes what we’re doing, and they’re talking about moving the rest of our tour to ESPN2 prime time at 9:30 p.m. It’s not a done deal, but that’s the direction they’re looking at. The reason they’re looking in that direction is because our audience is skewing very young, and our rating numbers are very high in that 4 o’clock time slot.
The WIBC Queens tournament, which was scheduled and is still scheduled to air [on ESPN2] the Tuesday at 4 o’clock following the Queens, regular ESPN is going to pick up that telecast and air it on a two-day delay May 23 at 5 p.m. So that puts the WIBC Queens in a great time slot. As many of you know, the WIBC Queens is being sponsored by Tri-Properties in Reno—that’s the El Dorado, Circus Circus, and the Silver Legacy. They’re putting $75,000 into that event through the year 2001.
On the regular tour, we have 18 events this year, which is down six from last year, but the prize money we’re paying is exactly the same as it was for 24 events last year. So that’s good for us, it’s good for the players. They don’t have as much travel expense, entry fee expense, and, from an administrative standpoint, we also don’t have the expenses.
To pick up for the loss of some of those national tournaments, we do have 60 regional tournaments this year. Our richest tournament on tour will be the AMF Gold Cup, a $200,000 event.
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What is the status of Carol Gianotti-Block?
JF: She’s going to have an operation in two and a half weeks. The doctors have told her that she will be able to come back in the fall. I’m not sure she’s going to be able to come back by fall; we’ll have to wait and see. After surgery, she’s going to do some therapy. She will be coming back for [April's] Salute to Champions, so we’ll be able to get a clearer picture of what her status is.
How much is CBS charging per show?
MG: Last year it was $140,000. This year, it’s $150,000. We thought it was important that we were able to get a two-year deal.
Both of you said the TV ratings were up. Can you elaborate on that?
MG: It’s been very exciting this year on ESPN so far. The ratings are up 12 percent. We went from a 1.01 to a 1.13. The last three shows on the air averaged a 1.3. Once you get away from .8 to 1.0, and you start getting to the 1.3 level, you’ve really separated yourself from all the glut of programming that ESPN has. So that’s where we’re at.
JF: On ESPN2, we don’t have anything that we can compare to other than what that time slot normally did. On ESPN2, they were doing like a .2, which is a very low rating. We’re coming in at .78 to .9, so we tripled and quadrupled the rating in that time slot. On the reruns on ESPN that we’ve had, our numbers are coming in at about .9, which is much higher than last year when we were at .5, .6.
Bowling Inc. has authorized basically a task force to look into ways to help both tour groups, and some of the principals of both Strike Ten and Bowling Inc. have been in contact with either or both of you. What is the upshot of the talks so far? What do you think ultimately will become of the task force as far as the pro tours are concerned?
JF: Basically what the task force is doing, and they have talked to both of us—it’s being headed by [ABC Executive Director] Roger Dalkin. The whole concept behind the task force is Where do we need to be when we get to the years 2001 and 2002? and How do we get there? That means prize money, sponsors, television. It’s a complicated issue, but basically, that’s what we talked about. We both had private conversations with him, and it’s a little bit vague at this particular point in time. Data is being gathered, and I don’t have anything or I don’t know if you do, Mark, to expand beyond that.
MG: It’s a blank sheet of paper that we’re looking at—what bowling should look like by the year 2003. Just because we [PBA] weren’t part of Bowling Inc. or Strike Ten doesn’t mean we haven’t been partners in this.
A directly related question: Do you think it’s possible that either or both of your organizations could be owned by Bowling Inc. in the early 2000s?
MG: Is it possible? Sure. Is it reality? I have no clue.
What are your players’ thoughts on the round-round television format?
JF: Our players’ feedback is fine. The girl who qualifies third when we do that round-robin cannot finish any lower than one place [fourth], and it’s been very positive.
MG: Our guys would rather have five guys on the show and use the [four-match] ESPN format across the line rather than the round-robin. From our point of view, and we talked about it a lot yesterday, you lose all the things that are exciting to all of us—replays, the emotion—all the things that make the show exciting.
[Bowling promoter] Steve Sanders and you have called putting up tents in parks arena bowling, and that’s not arena bowling. Also, your media guide lists arena finals, but it misses the first two or three, such as in Mobile and at Madison Square Garden….
MG: The second question is the easier one: We just blew it. There were arena shows long before the modern day arena finals. But it’s not to take away from what we’ve done in the past. In the outdoor event, there’s not a tent. It’s a canopy that’s up that we have the opportunity to pull down prior to the show, which we plan on doing, depending on the weather. Whether it’s going to end up being a real outdoor event or a canopied event, we can’t tell you. The mayor of New York has guaranteed sunshine on May 1!
What is the economic impact to PWBA with it no longer having Strike Ten involved?
JF: It’s a pretty big impact. Strike Ten Entertainment for the past two years has provided the television for the tour from an economic standpoint. It has sold advertising and provided the production. There was no charge, obviously, for the shows on ESPN on the network level, but there were production costs and that impact to the PWBA is about $550,000. We’re trying to work our way through it.
The blimp at the [Bayer/Brunswick Touring Players Championship on May 15] in Ohio: What are folks going to see that’s going to have an effect on bowling?
There’s a couple things that come into play there. We’re working with the city of Akron to put on the event. They add money to the tournament. Bringing the blimp in is part of a longer-term plan that we’re working on. We’re going to set up an outdoor lane that people are going to be bowling on. They’re going to get shots of Akron that will help us deliver on our deal for Akron. The publicity of having the blimp at an event for bowling is fantastic.
Did either the PBA or PWBA include the U. S. Open as part of their 1998 TV package initially?
MG: No.
JF: Yes.
To follow-up: Would that have been a time buy to the U.S. Open last year, John, since you answered in the affirmative? Would that TV arrangement that you had with the U.S. Open—for the U.S. Open, have arranged for the U.S. Open—would that have been a time buy for the U.S. Open or for, more specifically, Strike Ten, last year?
JF: The U.S. Open was presented as part of the PWBA package, along with the WIBC Queens tournament, which historically is what we always have done. The U.S. Open was pulled from our package, to answer your question.
I guess basically what I’m asking is, Was Steve Ryan and/or Strike Ten offered TV for the U.S. Open free of charge in 1998?
JF: By PWBA?
Yes.
JF: Yes.
Will you be getting more cooperation from the bowling proprietors regarding announcing your television events?
MG: One of the things we did last year was come out with a schedule poster that used to be printed. We did it for the whole year, and that was very difficult.
During a number of our meetings around the country with distributors and the manufacturer groups, we felt that it was important that we come out with it on a series-by-series basis. We had a program schedule out to the 6,000 proprietors, all the manufacturers, and all the distributors for the ESPN shows.
That’s the most important thing in my life: When you walk into a bowling center and John’s show is supposed to be on or our show is supposed to be on and you’re sitting there watching basketball. It’s just a disgrace! You can have a couple of televisions and have one with bowling, have one with basketball. To not have the sport on that you’re trying to promote is just not acceptable.
JF: You have proprietors all over this country that are just so promotion-minded, and you have proprietors that are not. There just isn’t anything that you can do, no matter how hard you try. If it’s the proprietor who is out there promoting the game, doing what he’s supposed to be doing, then it’s gonna happen. If it’s the guy who counts his money at the end of the day, it ain’t gonna happen. And that’s a hurdle that’s difficult to get over.
MG: The CBS show is going to be Gary Seibel and Marshall Holman again. We’re very pleased with Phil [Ferguson] and Marshall; we like the idea that we have a bowling person doing those shows. CBS has input into their announce crew with Gary and Marshall coming back. I think the important thing for us on CBS is that we have the same production team as producer and director of the shows. That’s very helpful to [PBA Public Relations Director] Dave [Schroeder] and us to make sure that we deliver all things that we’re trying to do on each show.
Tape delay telecasts—will there be more or less?
MG: We’d love to do all of our shows live. There’s no other way to say it: In today’s television environment, it’s a very, very difficult thing, and what you have to consider are trying to get pro-ams on the weekend, the players’ travel schedule, and then with ESPN going for Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays for the telecast, we’re gonna have tape delays.
I think everybody focuses on the negative. On CBS, we’re going to have seven of 10 shows at the same time. On the Fall Tour schedule, we have six weeks in a row where we’re 7:30 [p.m.] to 9 o’clock.
Check it out: Go through the channels every week and see when golf is on, see when NASCAR is on. The groups that get [regular times] are the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, and hockey. That’s it. That’s pretty much it. You’re going to see tape delays in the future.
Are you ever going to consider selling hot dogs and sodas during the televised events?
MG: Of course. I think it’s funny: My mom always says, What are you talking about so much behind there? It’s a sports event! You go to a basketball game, you go to a football game, you go to a baseball game, you have a good time. You go get a hot dog, you go get a Coke, you talk.
What’s the status of the [damaged] Chattanooga Open tape [that has yet to air on ESPN]?
MG: The Chattanooga tape is an ongoing saga. The comment John made is that he has a meeting with ESPN in two weeks. Are we betting that that meeting’s held?
This is a silly process that we deal with with ESPN. They’re a great partner, and we love working with them, but they’re very difficult in their scheduling.
The first quarter was completely filled, so getting the show on through March is impossible. We were supposed to have a meeting three weeks ago. When I was in New York, we were supposed to have a meeting last week. Kevin was supposed to have a meeting last Tuesday. And this morning at 10 o’clock, there’s supposed to be another meeting.
What we’re looking at is the Chattanooga show running early in the second quarter, hopefully in April. The edit is done, and now we’re just trying to get a time slot from ESPN.
JF: Just to echo what he said about the meeting with ESPN: We have an ongoing thing where when we talk on the phone and that’s "I’ve got a meeting next week with ESPN." and we bet whether or not that meeting is going to happen.
As we were putting our television package together for 1999, I finally got on an airplane and just flew to [ESPN headquarters in] Bristol [Conn.] and walked in and knocked on the door. And that was after, documented, 95 phone calls. Documented, 95 phone calls. I just got on a airplane and said, I’m going to Bristol and I ain’t gonna leave!
But they are busy, and that’s what happens.
Rumors are going on about the PBA Senior High Roller event in December. Can you speak about that now?
MG: We’ve hooked up with High Roller to create some new, exciting events for our tour players. It gives our guys a chance to make some money. There are three events scheduled right now—the senior event in Vegas in August, one for the whole membership at the end of August, and then there’s another senior event scheduled for December in Reno.
What gets the attention of the folks at ESPN?
MG: Obviously, if we call and write and do those things, it’s very important.
The concerns with ESPN [and its bowling telecasts] aren’t the number of viewers. They know we’re going to have that loyal viewing audience on a weekly basis. The bad news for both of us is that they know the bowlers are going to find us no matter what time or what date or what network they put us on.
The thing that we have to change, and it’s a tough thing, is that we have to change the demographics of the show. If we get younger viewers tuning into the show, then we automatically become more viable in their eyes.
Will brackets be playing a part in the PBA’s/PWBA’s future?
MG: Brackets will absolutely not be playing a part in our tour. The events with the High Roller, which is not a PBA tournament, will have brackets. Our tour will absolutely not, at least with me as the commissioner, have brackets on the tour.
JF: We experimented with brackets at the regional level only. No, we will not have brackets.
Why?
JF: Pretty basically, it’s just a form of gambling that should not be part of our tour. We’re just not going to do it, that’s all.
MG: Ours is pretty simple: The PBA was chartered and founded that we were going to play for money that wasn’t just the bowlers’ money. It’s plain and simple: We play for sponsor-added money, we play for house-added money, but we don’t play for our own money.
Aren’t you playing for your own money in the High Roller?
MG: It’s not our event. The High Roller people are allowing our players to bowl.
But you put your stamp of approval on it.
MG: Sure. No doubt about it.
One of the CBS shows last year was not shown in my market. Are the local affiliates under any obligation to show the telecasts?
MG: We cleared 97 percent of the markets last year. It was an outstanding number that we had. I think our lowest was 94 percent. Charlotte, Atlanta, and Grand Rapids did not put it on. One of the things we’ve done is once we find out which affiliates are not covering "Pro Bowlers Tour," we’ve come up with a model that we can go in and try and support the tournaments on the affiliates so that they’re making as much money as running a movie. So we can go in and help clear those markets. We did it successfully in Columbus, and we were successful in Kansas City last year, and hopefully the model will keep in place so we can do it more this year.
You used to have fields of 140 to 160. You limited the fields to 120, and now you can’t get that. Do you plan to open up the fields again?
I don’t see that we’re going to open fields in the near future. What happened, and you really have to look back in history, is that when fields were open the year before we took them down to 120, the players weren’t bowling. And now we have open tournaments—the Petraglia Open is a wide-open field, last year the back-to-back tournaments in Vegas and the ACDelco were open fields and we didn’t get 160 players. This year, the PBA National was an open event, and we didn’t get 160 players.
The money certainly is part of it; it’s very expensive to travel out there. The biggest reason, and we know that from being out there, as do the guys who bowl regionals or the guys who come out and try and bowl one tournament against our guys, is the level of competition and how good are guys are. They just know now that they can’t compete on a weekly basis against [the touring players].
We used to have 120-130 guys show for the rabbit (Pro Tour Qualifier) event. Now you can’t get a field of 100 bowlers, period.
MG: That’s the change. There are a lot of different variables that come into play.
Mark, what kind of lane condition are you using in overseas events?
MG: A varied PBA lane condition. I think there’s three different PBA lane conditions because we’ve found there’s no way the seniors can bowl on a national tour shot, nor can the regional players. If we put the national condition down for regional tournaments, we would have zero guys bowling on the weekends.
We have basically three conditions for the tours. Yes, we’re having tournaments internationally, and we’re using one of those.
Does it concern you at all that Strike Ten’s use of the name "Entertainment" in its title takes away from the "sport" of bowling?
MG: No. What our guys do is entertainment. If we don’t entertain, people are going to go away. If people walk into our bowling tournaments, these guys are so good—you know, they strike eight out of 12 times a game. If they’re averaging 220, they’re striking eight times. It’s like watching Mark Price shoot free throws in its overall scope of just throwing strikes.
So, the part "entertainment" for us is that the bowling tournament has to become an event. And entertainment is definitely part of that.
You stress the importance of the "entertainment" aspect of your telecasts. Considering the current popularity and demographics of professional wrestling, is there anything you can possibly take from the productions of Vince McMahon that could be incorporated into your telecasts?
MG: I love WWF, and I love WCW. I can see very easily where you can get to the point where you can cross the line. Right now, we’re walking a very fine line to stay on this side. The one thing we don’t want to do is question the integrity of the players. You don’t want to have fixed matches.
This boxing deal [the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis controversy] is going to come down, and it’s going to be pretty ugly. The one thing we can’t do is fix matches and do all that.
But up to that point, I want our players to show their own personalities, whether it’s Dave Arnold and he doesn’t look up at any shot—and that’s not bad. That’s who the person is, and we want players to show their personalities.
But that’s not entertainment!
MG: That’s OK. It’s not our job to say how a person acts on the lanes. But when Chris Barnes pumped his fist after he first strikes on the show in Erie, that got me all excited. So we want the players to showcase their own personalities and do their own thing—and that’s all.
The PBA Tour and ESPN announced the championship round of the PBA Chattanooga Open, which was contested February 13 and originally scheduled to air on ESPN the following day, now will be broadcast on ESPN Wednesday, April 7 from 3:30 to 5 a.m. The telecast, which did not air originally due to technical problems, features the 13th televised perfect game in PBA history, shot by Steve Jaros, who went on to win the title.
Top area players John Tragert of Germantown and Bobby Hall II of Landover were among the cashers in the Jersey Lanes PBA Eastern Regional event, which took place June 12-14 in Linden, N.J.
Tragert, who averaged 202.16 for 24 games, placed 18th and collected $540. Hall finished 39th, averaging 206.38 for his eight qualifying games. He pocketed $241.
Professional Bowlers Association Commissioner Mark Gerberich addressed members of the Bowling Writers Association of America March 12, 1998 in Reno, Nev., at the annual PBA/PWBA breakfast. The following is an edited transcript.
There are a lot of things happening, and you just have to be patient. I am the least patient person in the entire world, so it's much harder for me. If you look at ABC, WIBC, FIQ, PWBA, and all the other groups, it's truly amazing the support bowling has behind itself. … We now have eight additional salespeople out selling the "Pro Bowlers Tour" and the entire bowling industry. And that's what we want you to focus on.
The results have not been what everybody has expected yet, but things can't happen overnight. I think it's a growing process. Bowling has fallen so far that it really has to start promoting the sport again, getting the word out, and now people are starting to talk about bowling for the first time in a long while.
As you know, TV has been the lifeblood of the PBA for a long time, and we're very excited with what The Marquee Group has accomplished in a short time. We signed a three-year agreement with ESPN, which is the finest cable contract we've ever done. We're charged with selling some of the commercials, and once we sell X amount of the commercials, we share that income with ESPN on a 50-50 basis. We've already exceeded that number for this year, and we have the entire Fall Tour to sell.
It's going to be a great benefit for our players in the future. It may be a blessing that we've transferred from ABC to CBS because now we have a partner who's really committed to promoting "Pro Bowlers Tour," and you're going to see it in the next month to come.
They're bringing back the "CBS Sports Spectacular," which will be their Saturday afternoon time slot. There will be a number of events that will be promoted within that time slot, and the PBA Tour will be one of them. Obviously, from a financial standpoint, it's a more difficult deal for the PBA, but it has a greater opportunity on the upside, with us controlling the inventory, with us controlling the TV show, with us controlling the international rights to distribute the same. It's a fantastic opportunity. I think it's going to take some time to get geared up, and it's been a struggle.
We were sitting here last year, and CBS told us we were going to have to buy the time and sell the commercials, and we were going to have to raise $1.9 million to get the show on the air.
And now, we're sitting here a month away, and we're in a pretty good position that we think we're going to meet or exceed that goal. So a year ago we didn't think that was possible. Now, we're in pretty decent shape.
I want to talk about the PR side, too, because everywhere you go, people are starting to talk good about bowling. When you look at what Strike Ten Entertainment has done with Alan Taylor Communications, and what AMF has accomplished with their PR firm, Hill and Knowlton, and what PBA is accomplishing with our new PR firm, Dan Klores and Associates, we're really pleased with the way things are going. You might have seen it our shows, but new commercial that we've created brings our players down to a level that people can relate to and gives them some personality.
As I've been talking on the PR side, we've been very fortunate with the firm that we've hired that they've been able to generate a lot.
When we're in a certain city, and [Professional Women's Bowling Association President] John [Falzone] will attest to this, we get great coverage from the bowling media. But what we're getting now is more stories on the business pages, more stories on the entertainment pages, and as you're going to see now, there was a story about the PBA on CNBC and the "Wall Street Journal Report." Everybody's doing a fantastic job of getting the word out.
The other thing is, like it or hate it, the noise you hear on the show-people are talking about it, ratings were up 14 percent for the first six weeks on the tour, and we're very happy about that.
One of the things we're trying to improve on is our presentation in the centers. When people come to sporting events, they want to be entertained. Last year, we added the Fan Booth, the Merchandise Booth. [PBA Public Relations Director] Dave Schroeder and [PBA National Tour Tournament Director] Kirk von Krueger are doing a fantastic job of upgrading what we're doing—more concepts, more giveaways, working with the bowling companies giving away balls, giving away dinners from the local sponsors. Everything that will make the fan entertainment experience better.
We introduced a visible vault: People walk up, they enter a six-digit code, and if they hit the code, they win $10,000. Now, it's a bowling event rather than a bowling tournament.
It's been cleared with ESPN and CBS that [Marshall Holman] can do both shows. Marshall is still going to compete on the tour. He needs to bowl at least half of the events to be eligible for the Tournament of Champions. I think that's a priority for him. He might cut back on his play because there is a stipulation in the Tournament of Champions that anyone who is a past champion can bowl by paying the entry fee for the last spot.
If Marshall makes the show, I think's [his replacement] is wide open. I think there are a number of different guys out there that are good. The old standbys—Dick Weber, Dave Davis, Earl Anthony, Bo Burton, Mike Durbin—those guys fit the bill. I've seen Bryan Goebel do a show very well on ESPN. John Mazza, Randy Pedersen, Johnny Petraglia did shows on CBS.
We have a young guy on tour who has a broadcasting degree whom you don't know yet—he was the rookie of the year last year. His name is Anthony Lombardo, who is very qualified to be behind the microphone. I think it will be interesting. We don't have anything set in stone.
The format for the CBS shows will be the fourth, third, and second seeds in the first game. The winner will advance and bowl the top-seeded bowler. There'll be two matches on TV.
ESPN and CBS are two different things. We're starting to have more leverage with ESPN because this is the first year that they're going to make money off of "Pro Bowlers Tour." On CBS, six out of nine events are in the 3 p.m. time frame. They're all going to be advertised as "CBS Sports Spectacular." If CBS is going to do the job that they're talking about in promoting the series, people will be able to find the "Pro Bowlers Tour" fairly easily on Saturday afternoons on CBS. ESPN is a different story.
Comments by PWBA President John Falzone
Gary Seibel and Marshall Holman join CBS Sports as the broadcast team for coverage of the PBA Tour on the CBS Television Network. Seibel will handle play-by-play duties for CBS Sports' coverage of the PBA Tour along with Marshall Holman, a PBA Hall of Famer and former Player of the Year (1987).
Holman, who will serve as analyst, worked in that position for ESPN's coverage of the PBA Tour in 1996 and 1997. He ranks fourth all-time on the PBA's earnings list and eighth all-time in titles won with 22.
Following is CBS Sports' scheduled Saturday afternoon coverage of the PBA Tour:
In other news, Pete Weber was named bowler of the month for February by the Bowling Writers Association of America. The former rookie of the year captured the PBA National Championship in Toledo by defeating David Ozio, 277-236, in the title match and followed with a third-place finish in the STORM Flagship Open in Erie, Pa. Weber, one of four Triple Crown winners, now has two legs up on a second Triple Crown, having won the U.S. Open twice (1988 and 1990) and the PBA National Championship (1988 and 1998). He won the Tournament of Champions in 1987.
Runner-up for BWAA Bowler of the Month honors was Walter Ray Williams Jr., who won the STORM event and was second in the Peoria (Ill.) Open. Williams, the 1997 BWAA Bowler of the Year, continues his winning ways, but Weber has made wresting that title away from Williams his motivational goal for 1998.
In a separate matter, PBA Commissioner Mark Gerberich last week confirmed to BOWL Magazine Online that Guppy Troup was fined for removing his shirt and tossing it to bared-chested fans following his participation in the championship round of the STORM Flagship Open in Erie, Pa., February 28. The incident was shown on ESPN via delayed telecast March 1.
In explaining the lack of publicity concerning Troup's penalty, Gerberich noted that conduct fines normally are not made public. As for the appearance of the males who each painted a letter from Troup's first name on their bare chests, Gerberich said, "They can do whatever they want."